Microsoft Exchange

From ITS Wiki - Information Technology Services - University of Rhode Island

Contents 1 Overview 2 Exchange Accounts 3 Access 4 Password Requirements 5 Outlook Web Access 5.1 Displaying a Shared Folder 6 Using Outlook (Windows Machines Only) 6.1 Using a Fresh Installation of Outlook 6.2 Using a Pre-configured Installation of Outlook 6.3 Decreasing Wait Time 6.3.1 Part 1 6.3.2 Part 2 7 Using Apple Mail 8 Using Entourage 9 Using Exchange with a Smart Phone 9.1 Setting Up an iPhone with Exchange 9.2 Setting Up a Blackberry with Exchange

Overview

URI now supports select groups of faculty and staff Exchange email accounts as a pilot program. These accounts are limited to 1 GB of server storage, the same as the mail.uri.edu accounts. Anyone wishing to use this email service must use either Outlook (not Express) with Microsoft Windows or Entourage on a Mac. As of Mac OS 10.6, Apple Mail features full functionality with Exchange. Full-functionality includes mail messaging, calendaring and active sync for smart devices (Blackberries, iPhones, Treos, etc.).

Exchange Accounts

Exchange accounts are managed by University Computing Services. Requests for accounts should, however, be addressed to the Help Desk. Account names will be the same as domain log-in account names where they exist. Domain accounts will also share the same password with Exchange accounts.

Access

Access to Exchange email accounts can be through the Outlook Web Access (OWA) website or a client application (Outlook, Entourage or Apple Mail).

Password Requirements

Your password must be at least eight characters long. The password must contain characters from at least three of the following five categories:

• English uppercase characters (A - Z)
• English lowercase characters (a - z)
• Base 10 digits (0 - 9)
• Non-alphanumeric (For example: !, $, #, or %)
• Unicode characters

Exchange has a password check that rejects all passwords containing three or more characters from the user's account name. However, if the account name is less than three characters long, the check cannot be performed.

Password example: 210FlaggRoad This password contains characters from three of the five categories listed above. However, this password could not be used if the user's last name was Flagg. Choosing a street address as your password makes it easy to remember, but for security reasons, do not use your own address!

Outlook Web Access

Outlook Web Access provides access to all mail and calendar functions normally accessed through a client such as Outlook. These functions can be accessed from any computer platform (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) through a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera). of course, Microsoft recommends IE8 for the richest support environment. OWA works in a similar fashion to the URI webmail system--users authenticate using their email username and password to gain access to their account from anywhere in the world with internet connectivity.

To access OWA, type

https://exchange.uri.edu

into your web browser. "https" delivers a secure connection for the transmission of user credentials (username and password).

A window may open stating that you are about to view a page over a secure connection (although if you have suppressed this warning it will not appear). If this window does appear, simply click 'ok" to gain access to the login page.

On the OWA log-in page, there is an option to select that you are using a public or shared computer. This option, when selected, will automatically log you out of your account after 15 minutes of inactivity. Choosing the private computer option will not log you out of your account until you are inactive for 24 hours.

There is an option to "Use Outlook Web Access Light." This option will produce better performance on a busy network or on wireless. If you are using a browser other than IE6 or greater (Safari, Firefox, etc.) this option may be mandatory.

The entry field for username requires that " uri\" be typed before the username. For example, user: bobwhite would enter "uri\bobwhite"

The pasword for Outlook Web Access is identical to the password used for Outlook or any other email application access to the Exchange account. You can reset your password using OWA. Select Options in the upper right corner and then select Change Password in the left column.

Displaying a Shared Folder

If an Exchange user shares a folder with you (for instance, you are given permissions to view another user's calendar), you can view the folder as follows:

1. Open your mailbox in Outlook Web Access.

2. Change the URL at the top of the screen by clicking at the end of the URL.

3. Then add: /otherusersemailaddress/?cmd=contents&f=otherusersfolder

Substituting the other users's email address and the name of the folder that you want to open. For example:

/john@example.com/?cmd=contents&f=calendar

or

/john@example.com/?cmd=contents&f=contacts.

The other user's folder will open in the same window. You can minimize the window and open it as needed from your Taskbar (if using Windows).

To access all OWA features, you may have to temporarily unblock pop-ups in your browser settings if you have this security feature enabled.

Using Outlook (Windows Machines Only)

Microsoft Outlook can easily be configured to use an Exchange Server.

Using a Fresh Installation of Outlook

1. At the Start menu (or Start orb in Vista), navigate to All Programs, and then open Microsoft Outlook (usually found under Micrsooft Office).
2. The Outlook Start-up window will open. Click "Next."
3. You may see a window that will ask whether you want to upgrade from another email program (sometimes called an email client), select no. If you want to import from another program, follow the directions located in the Importing Email wiki article
4. The next window will ask if you want to configure an email account, click the button next to "Yes."
5. Another new window (Auto Account Setup) will open.
6. Enter user information (name, email addee@ds.uri.edu, password). "Manually configure server settings" should be left unchecked. Click "Next."
   

   Outlook Web Access Startup
   • for example,
   • Your Name: Abby Normal
   • Email Address: abnormal@ds.uri.edu
   • password: ********
7. A new window will open, type in the username in the following format: uri\username, enter the password (this is case-sensitive), then click "OK".
8. A new window will open while the machine checks for network connections and server settings, and logs onto the server. It will put a check mark next to each of these items as they are completed.
9. When this process is finished, there will be a message "Your email account is successfully configured to use Microsoft Exchange." When you see this click "Finish."

Using a Pre-configured Installation of Outlook

When Microsoft Outlook has already been configured with another account, the Outlook Start-up window will not display on launch.

1. To bring up the start-up dialog, click 'Tools' at the top.
2. Click 'Account Settings'. In Outlook 2007, the a list of all configured accounts will be displayed.
3. Click 'New...'. The start-up dialog should appear. Refer to the above directions.

Decreasing Wait Time

Some exchange users experience a lot of wait time while loading Outlook. This may be fixed by changing how Outlook handles a fast network. The process for this is twofold:

Part 1

1. Select the Exchange account from your Account Settings.
2. Select the More Settings button and then select the Connection tab.
3. Select the Exchange Proxy Settings button under Outlook Anywhere
4. On the subsequent screen select both the Fast and Slow check boxes.

Part 2

1. Select the Add Ons option from the Trust/Tools Center.
2. Uncheck all the boxes in COM Add-Ins and click OK.

Using Apple Mail

1. Open Apple Mail. Pull down the Mail menu in the upper left. Select “Preferences.”
2. Click on the “Accounts” icon in the top row (second item from the left).
   

   Apple Mail Add Account
   
   
3. Click on the plus sign at the bottom of the left to add the account.
4. The “Add Account” window will open. Enter your name, exchange email address and password (see Windows article above for rules about Exchange passwords).
   • The email account in this window can be either the Exchange account (username@ds.uri.edu) or an alias if it points to the Exchange account (if you are unsure about this, call the Help Desk and they can verify the email address that the alias points to). Click “Continue."
     

     Apple Mail Incoming Mail Server
5. The “Incoming Mail Accounts” window will now open. Pull down the “Account Type” menu and select “Exchange.” We recommend that you use the word “Exchange” for the description so that you can recognize this account from other account types. The incoming and outgoing mail servers are both exchange.uri.edu. The User Name must be typed in the “uri\username” format. For example, the email address abnormal@ds.uri.edu would be typed in as uri\abnormal. The Mail program will now verify the server, username and password combination.
   

   Apple Mail Outgoing Mail Server
6. The “Outgoing Mail Server” window will open. Again, we recommend you use “Exchange” as the description for this server. The outgoing mail server is exchange.uri.edu—do not select “Use Authentication.” Click “Continue.”
7. The “Outgoing Mail Security” window will open. Choose “Use secure Sockets Layer (SSL).” Leave the “Authentication”pulldown menu at “Password.”
8. The “Account Summary” window will open. At the bottom of the window, click “Take account online,” then click “Create.”
9. The Exchange account will now appear in the list of email accounts in the left column. The Preferences pane by clicking on the red button in the upper left corner.
10. The account can now be seen in the Inbox (if the arrow next to the Inbox is pointed down, if not click on this arrow and it will reveal all the email accounts currently being checked by the Mail program).

Using Entourage

Entourage has included support for Microsoft Exchange servers since August 4, 2003, when the Exchange Update for Entourage X was released. This early release required the use of IMAP for mail connectivity and WebDAV for address and calendar functionality. (Subsequent versions have dropped the requirement for IMAP and rely solely on WebDAV.)

Subsequent versions of Entourage have added some of the missing functionality. However, full parity with Outlook as an Exchange client is still not available in Entourage 2008. Synchronization of tasks and notes with an Exchange server is still not available.

One major shortcoming of Entourage is its inability to handle complex HTML. While messages can be received and viewed correctly, they cannot be forwarded without all formatting being stripped out. As an example, an airline confirmation received from, say, Imaginary Airlines, will not be able to be forwarded without all of the pictorial information being reduced to links, rendering the e-mail unreadable. A workaround for this is to choose "Forward as attachment" which forwards the message as a .eml file, and preserves complex HTML formatting.
An additional limitation is the inability to attach what is referred to as an "Item" in Outlook to a message while it is being composed since there is no menu choice to allow this. Instead, a user needs to find the item to be forwarded, i.e., a Contact, select it, then choose Forward as vCard from the menu.
It is also not possible to create or manage server side rules on the Exchange server, so filtering only works when the Entourage application is running.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Entourage

Using Exchange with a Smart Phone

Exchange email accounts can be checked with a variety of smart phones. Although there are a wide variety of smart phones on the market, we will cover only those makes and models with which the Help Desk has experience.

Setting Up an iPhone with Exchange

iPhone Exchange information can be found here as well as here

WARNING - Before you set up your Exchange account, please know that any contacts and calendar events currently on your iPhone will be erased. They will be replaced with what is in your Exchange account. So please make sure that you transfer all of your data to Exchange before going through the setup process on your iPhone.

1. To set up an iPhone for Microsoft Exchange select settings Settings
   
2. On the subsequent screen select Mail, Contacts, Calendars
   
3. On the subsequent screen select Add Account.
   
4. On the subsequent screen select Microsoft Exchange.
   
5. On the subsequent screen you will be required to put in your email, which is username@ds.uri.edu and the domain which is uri.ds.uri.edu
   
   1. Note: If the Domain tab is missing and only the username is present the format should be uri.ds.uri.edu/username
      
6. On the same screen you will need to put in your username, which is your eCampus username and the URI Domain Password that was given to you when you received an exchange account or a URI domain username. If you have forgotten the domain password contact the HelpDesk at 874-HELP The description can be whatever you want it to be. Once all the information has been filled in select Next.
   
7. On the subsequent screen you will have to chose what to sync. You should sync Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. NOTE: Syncing will only sync the last three days of mail. To sync older messages please do the following:
   1. Go to Settings and then Mail, Contacts, Calendars
   2. Change the amount of days of email that you want to sync.

For more information on setting up these accounts download this document here: File:IPhoneExchangeHelp.pdf.

Setting Up a Blackberry with Exchange